Health issue or quit whining?

koakes95
koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hey guys,
So this is my first post. My fitness background is a long story. When I was younger I was quite fat, Up until 8th grade when I joined the football team. By the time I was done with football (And my last year of high school I did Insanity with my brother, intensely) I was just shy of a 6 pack. Well after high school life went sideways. Adulthood hit like a sack of bricks and fitness was no longer a priority nor did I have time or money to do it trying to establish myself as a young adult.
Flash forward I am now 25 and 275 pounds, but not the super unhealthy fat way. Yes I am quite chubby but with quite obvious fitness underneath. Throughout the years I have done 3 different varieties of insanity, I feel I did it quite intensely as I did in high school. During each time doing insanity I had an on point diet but I could never seem to budge the scale. It has slowly continued to creep upwards to where I am now. And of course with each failed attempt I just kinda go back to my normal routine, and my diet slips with it. Yes, I can see small differences like minor definitions in my arms and top 2 abs under my ribs but I can NOT slim my waist size at all. I know weight gain for muscle is normal but I have not gained that much muscle. It seems....strange i weight so much, and everyone i tell my weight to detests that I actually weigh that.
Well I finally purchased a house in october and got a treadmill and a powerline home gym, along with a weight rack. I have worked myself to get to 10 minute miles every day, varying how I get there. Sometimes steady, sometimes walk, then jog, then dead sprint and repeat to get the heart pounding. After the mile I take it to the free weight, the home gym, or I mix it up on the floor sending my abs through the gauntlet with some of the wonderful things insanity has taught me. All this on top of being very mindful of my diet. I started this back in November, and yes it took a week or two to get to a 10 minute mile, or even close, but I'm there. Yes the holidays kinda put a damper on things but I was still getting 3 workouts a week in at minimum during the weeks that had a holiday. I currently weight 270. But have been bouncing from that 275 back to 270 since I started in November. It's now basically February and, as my past repeats itself, am getting almost nowhere. Thus I am beginning to get very demoralized. I am sore at work all the time, and it seems like it's for nothing. If I'm so sore all the time should I be getting some sort of result? I just learned my father has an underactive thyroid and am beginning to fear I may have the same problem, tho I'm between jobs and have no insurance currently and am waiting until i get it to go see a doctor. In the meantime, does anyone have any advice or opinions? I see so many stories of people shredding weight off and they dont do nearly as thorough of workouts as I have been. It just doesnt make sense. Sorry for such a long post, but I'm desperate!!!
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Replies

  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,989 Member
    edited January 2020
    The exercise that you are doing is great for your health, but the majority of weight loss is acheived through diet. You talk about your diet being "on point" and "mindful", but do you know how many calories you are consuming? Are you logging your food? Weight loss happens when you burn more calories than you consume. If you don't know how many calories you are consuming, you are missing out on vital information.

    If you haven't yet, set up an MFP profile and start logging your food. Eat at least a portion of your exercise calories. Then, give it some time and see what happens. Good luck.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    Go to the doctor and ask for a full thyroid panel. If thyroid hormones are off, your other efforts will stall out. This is what happened to me several years ago despite calorie counting and exercise. I got the meds and suddenly things worked again. If your thyroid is okay, then make sure you are weighing all your foods, because cups and other non weight measures are pretty random for solid ingredients and you won't know the actual calories you're eating.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    puffbrat wrote: »
    This whole post is focusing on exercise. The only comment about diet is "During each time doing insanity I had an on point diet but I could never seem to budge the scale." What does on point diet mean? You need to eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Have you done the guided setup on this app? Are you logging everything you eat?

    This.

    You may have fallen victim to the myth that "healthy" food will help you lose weight. You can eat enough highly nutritious food in a day to stay at the same weight and even gain weight.

    Your soreness could mean that you are retaining water which will mask progress on the scale temporarily. This throws a lot of people.

  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
    You cannot outrun your diet. It takes hours to burn off a fairly small amount of food, and minutes to eat it. If you aren't eating fewer calories than you burn, you will not lose weight. And frequently people who try to exercise it off end up eating more because of the exercise and undoing any loss.

    Eating "healthy" won't cut it either. Calorie is king. Your answer lies in how many you're eating.
  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you guys for swift responses!! Yes. I've had MFP app throughout my current endeavor. I have eliminated most all junk, yknow McDonalds, pizza, sugar, bread when I can. I do not consume more than 2000 calories a day and of those calories they are quite healthy choices. I drink a chobani yogurt drink for breakfast, have a banana and a nature valley bar as snacks, keep it light for lunch, sometimes a small turkey sandwich with one piece of bread or a wrap. And then dinner around 6PM every night, as that's when my girlfriend gets home from work. I have been limiting my portions, where as I used to eat my girlfriends scraps. Tho I dont have an absolute perfect diet like I did in high school, I do have a very acceptable diet and at my weight, i feel i should be loosing weight in conjunction with the exercise. I may run a 10 minute mile but that is followed by another 45 minutes of various intense workouts
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,989 Member
    koakes95 wrote: »
    Thank you guys for swift responses!! Yes. I've had MFP app throughout my current endeavor. I have eliminated most all junk, yknow McDonalds, pizza, sugar, bread when I can. I do not consume more than 2000 calories a day and of those calories they are quite healthy choices. I drink a chobani yogurt drink for breakfast, have a banana and a nature valley bar as snacks, keep it light for lunch, sometimes a small turkey sandwich with one piece of bread or a wrap. And then dinner around 6PM every night, as that's when my girlfriend gets home from work. I have been limiting my portions, where as I used to eat my girlfriends scraps. Tho I dont have an absolute perfect diet like I did in high school, I do have a very acceptable diet and at my weight, i feel i should be loosing weight in conjunction with the exercise. I may run a 10 minute mile but that is followed by another 45 minutes of various intense workouts

    If you are sure you are logging accurately, and are below 2,000 calories every day, then a trip to the doctor for some blood work might be a good idea. I know you said you don't have insurance right now...maybe check on the cash cost of just a thyroid panel blood test for now, if it's going to be a while until you are insured. I'm not sure what that costs, but it might be worth ruling out.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    If you open your diary, perhaps we can see areas that might be going wrong. Calorie counting can be tricky, and it's easy to miss things that can make a significant difference. The "health" of your calorie choices won't influence your weight. That's not to say it won't influence the way you feel.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Do you have a digital food scale? Are you weighing and measuring everything you eat and drink?
  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
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  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
    Here is an average day. I eliminated bread that day for lunch and rolled up the ham tomato and cheese in a lettuce leaf. Dinner varies. But breakfast and lunch almost always remain very similar. I have since stopped using the app. As my diet was almost identical every day, and nothing was really changing. If anything changes it's been me eliminating more and more unhealthy things from the diet. Let me add, I drive tractor trailers for a living. So a lot of sitting throughout the day. But I'm not over the road, I'm constantly getting out and climbing on my load on my trailer and doing semi strenuous activities when i get to my several destinations in a day.
  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
    You ask me if I'm weighing food on a food scale, but I am damn near 300 pounds. It should not be that extreme for me to lose a few pounds. I know how hard I worked for it when I was 17, and I am working just as hard to get it back now to no avail. As I have several times. As I said I just turned 25, surely my body hasn't slowed down that fast. Unless of course theres an underlying reason. I appreciate all the scrutiny, it does make me second guess if I'm doing everything correctly but for my size and efforts it just seems illogical that after months of serious exercise and very fair dieting i havent lost 5 pounds.
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,538 Member
    “All this on top of being very mindful of my diet.”

    Do you keep a food diary? Do you count calories? Use a food scale to crunch the numbers?

    You say you feel like you should be losing weight with your current program but aren’t. Earlier you say you suspect there’s somywrong with your thyroid.

    The “secret” to weight loss is not secret at all. In fact it’s well known- a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit works because it’s how are bodies are designed. Of course it’s possible that you have a medical issue but folks show up here by the bus load saying that they have medical issues or damaged metabolisms. And a few do. Few.

    But you won’t really know where you are until you try full on calorie counting with a food diary, a scale, measuring cups for liquids. You also need a willingness to do it. And you’ll have an easier go if you plan a menu.

    Likely your brain is screaming that all that weighing and measuring and tracking is bs, and/or it doesn’t matter because you aren’t the kind of person to get into something like that.

    There are many dedicated calorie counters on this site and most have been in exactly the same spot. Try it. You won’t know until you try it. A food scale costs about $15. The rest is free here on MFP.

    It’s simple but not easy. Give yourself time to learn it. Calorie counting works.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    I would suggest tracking with as much accuracy as you can for 4 full weeks. Using a food scale for everything that is solid or semisolid, and cups only for liquids. I know this might sound over the top, but without tracking, you don't really know how much you are eating. Eliminating more foods isn't going to help if you are continuing to eat large calories worth of "healthy" foods. Much of what you posted looks like it wasn't weighed out, and portion creep is a real thing, where your eyes think you are taking the same amount, but it is in increasingly larger portions. Additionally, there might be some stuff missing from above. Your homemade fries, for example, was this your recipe? Did you use any oil with it? Add anything to it, such as ketchup? Same with the steak. Anything added to it? Was it exactly 8 oz?
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Additionally, I would recommend looking through some of these threads:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
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  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
    So this, is my current 270 pound self. No none of my logs were weighed, I use the portion sizes. And sometimes you cant find exactly what you're looking for on the app so have to use the next best thing. When I was young before I started football I saw a nutritionist that taught me much about the value of a good diet. I implemented that throughout high school and ended up with fantastic results. Let it all go, gained my fat back and now doing something similar to what I did before doesnt work. I suppose I should try a food scale. It just seems crazy to me that I'd have to go to that length to lose a couple pounds when i never had to before in my life. And yea, i suppose i should also contact a doctor for a thyroid test. But i always just told myself I'm fine and just have to work harder. It's a tough pill to swallow when 7 years ago I was chizzeled and now I cant trim the bacon at all.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    ... Did you take measurements as well?

    You might have a thyroid issue, but when my "slow" thyroid was spotted at a TSH of 25, I was at the lowest weight of my adult life. Exercise still works with a slow thyroid, but water retention is a huge pain in the booty. I usually see a lot of changes in my measurements when I'm eating right, even if my weight is being stubborn. I was stuck at about 157# for 5 weeks in November, but didn't freak out because my waist measurement was down about 2" in that time.

    Getting a food scale will cost you $12 and a bit of time to learn to use. Getting a thyroid panel without insurance will cost you a couple hundred dollars.

    I'm NOT you, but if I were, I'd eliminate the less expensive potential errors FIRST and if those aren't the answer, THEN I'd go after the more expensive alternatives that require a lifetime of medication compliance to resolve. If you think weighing your food is a chore, you don't even want to go there with having to take a pill at the same time every day on an empty stomach. Never mind the number of comorbid issues that can show up with thyroid problems and involve even more complicated medications and protocols.

    A bunch of people have suggested a food scale. I would also suggest a food scale. Once you get the hang of using one, they don't really take that much time to use, and they really help with portion control and mindfulness.

  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    koakes95 wrote: »
    So this, is my current 270 pound self. No none of my logs were weighed, I use the portion sizes. And sometimes you cant find exactly what you're looking for on the app so have to use the next best thing. When I was young before I started football I saw a nutritionist that taught me much about the value of a good diet. I implemented that throughout high school and ended up with fantastic results. Let it all go, gained my fat back and now doing something similar to what I did before doesnt work. I suppose I should try a food scale. It just seems crazy to me that I'd have to go to that length to lose a couple pounds when i never had to before in my life. And yea, i suppose i should also contact a doctor for a thyroid test. But i always just told myself I'm fine and just have to work harder. It's a tough pill to swallow when 7 years ago I was chizzeled and now I cant trim the bacon at all.

    I'm sorry you are frustrated. I get that it's a bit to wrap your mind around, but honestly, for the $15-20 for the food scale, if it doesn't work, you're no further behind than where you are right now. If what you're doing isn't working, then something needs to change, right?
  • koakes95
    koakes95 Posts: 8 Member
    Right. Let me change my frame because you guys think I'm getting frustrated when I'm trying to just explain my situation. Which does so happen to be frustrating but that's regardless lol. Basically anywhere you look, people 300 pounds dont struggle to lose a few pounds when excercise and diet come into play. I'm taking leaps and bounds for months and cant budge. I'm on all your side, that there should be a simple solution, or I'm missing something, and from the outside looking in that's very obvious. But, that isnt the case. I've been fit before, I know what it took to get there and I know what I'm doing now vs then. It wasnt that long ago after all. It just wont cut it.
  • avatiach
    avatiach Posts: 306 Member
    Maybe try focusing on eating a lot more fruits and veggies. 5-10 servings a day! See if you can incorporate apples, green salads, sweet potato or squash...
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    MikePTY wrote: »
    To those suggesting getting the thyroid checked, it should be noted that the OP is male. And while males can certainly have thyroid issues, they are significantly less common in men than women (by a factor of several times). And even with thyroid issues, it's not always the issues for weight loss it's made out to be. If OP doesn't have insurance, I would 100% rule out everything first before going the medical route, because I think that is the least likely scenario.

    I agree with the others about the food scale. The reason why people push it so much is because by far the number one correct answer when people say "I can't lose weight" is that they are eating more than they think. That is why we are so focused on that.

    You also just may need more patience. It was hard to make out from your status, but it seems like you've tried during bouts of insanity, which I believe we're about a month? Sometimes with exercise or a change in routine you can retain more water, and it may not have fully worked it's way out your system. I'd recommend giving whatever method you decide at least a few months of testing. You're 25, you have time to work this out.

    And make diet your main focus. Exercise is great, but diet is what will ultimately drive it.

    OP said his father has a thyroid issue.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    koakes95 wrote: »
    Right. Let me change my frame because you guys think I'm getting frustrated when I'm trying to just explain my situation. Which does so happen to be frustrating but that's regardless lol. Basically anywhere you look, people 300 pounds dont struggle to lose a few pounds when excercise and diet come into play. I'm taking leaps and bounds for months and cant budge. I'm on all your side, that there should be a simple solution, or I'm missing something, and from the outside looking in that's very obvious. But, that isnt the case. I've been fit before, I know what it took to get there and I know what I'm doing now vs then. It wasnt that long ago after all. It just wont cut it.

    OP--please forget what was successful in the "past" or what works for "others". Things change. You have to change with them. You have gotten good advice. A food scale is not a huge disaster. So many people on here are using it even when they're at goal weight to watch their macros. Eating "right" or "healthy" does not mean weight loss. The only thing you need is a calorie deficit. That's what you had in the past. How you get there is your choice. Good luck.
  • Aquarian
    Aquarian Posts: 1,094 Member
    What everyone said. And if u can’t get a food scale, try to reduce your best guess current intake by a 100 calories a day and see if that works. Give it a couple of weeks.

    As an aside, for me it has always helped when I eat my heaviest meal for breakfast, moderate for lunch and mild for dinner. You seem to be doing the opposite.

    Hang in there, try these changes and see if they help.

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